2015-01-27

A day in the life of a CAD Dork

I've been reading the #CADdork (day in the life of a CAD/BIM blogger) posts by some of my favorite authors today, and look forward to perusing the rest. I'll post a link to them, I believe Todd Shackelford is planning on doing the roundup.

Working in Facilities, I don't always get a predictable day, but, that's part of why I like it. Also, in my current role, I'm primarily tech support as the administrator of our CAFM/CMMS, but, like everyone else in my group, when anything needs done, one of us steps up to do it.

Thinking of my regular tasks, I didn't lay out any potential renovations in #AutoCAD today, which is fine, because when my coworkers watch me CAD, it makes me self-conscious. I didn't really do any reporting (think of me as the Penelope Garcia of Facilities). I didn't do any programming or user training (I've got some upcoming changes to our maintenance module, so I'll be in touch with a few users to get them up to speed and ease them into the differences then). No new account setups or role changes.

I DID do some tech support, data verification, table auditing and helped cover some work for a vacationing coworker.

We don't have a lunch break at work, just all eat at our desks, so breaks are taken when we have a lull in our activities.

Usually I am home by 5pm, helping with homework and cooking a full meal most nights. We have an open plan, so, I can see and speak with the family while I work. I enjoy cooking, it's the only creative thing I really do well (that and I'm a super picky eater).

After dinner, we enjoy movies and Netflix marathons while we catch up on our games, make jokes at each other's expense and enjoy the dark and relative quiet. I check into AUGI accounts all the time, very much embedded into the community and happy to be a part of such a fun group of members.

If I've had too much stimulation during the day, I tend to stay up late after everyone else retires and read because I so seldom have any time alone.

6:30 Get up and check personal & AUGI email and other social accounts.

7:00 Morning ablutions.

7:10 My husband is already up, making lunch for the boys and starting a pot of joe. Grab a cup from the still-brewing coffee, kiss the family goodbye & head out.

I blare music during my commute. No talk, no news, just music.

Today? I was feeling 90's.

7:50 ZOMG, traffic is uncharacteristically horrible, sitting on the interstate.

I hate being late. Message my boss to tell him I won't be in on time.

7:55 Traffic finally opens up.

8:15 Arrive at work. I really prefer to get in earlier, to have some quiet time before people start arriving, getting a handle on planning my day (whether I'm given the luxury of following that plan is not something I can always control ;) ).

Here is my cube, I hate paper, so, it's mostly filled with swag to distinguish me from the non-IT people that surround me:

Check my email, and the two mailboxes I'm covering while our Corporate Facilities superhero is on a week+ long vacation.

~sniff~ Including an email about the Archibus Nexus conference, that I can't go to because it's (once again) not in the budget. I'd love to take the system integration and reporting classes there, as well as see what other users are doing with their systems.

Eat at my desk while trying not to strangle a nearby cube dweller who has their phone on speaker, they're on hold. The looped messages are annoying.

Take a swing through www.forums.augi.com and check the moderation queue for posts that need approving, reply to PMs from other mods, no action today in the moderators' forum. Read posts to see if I can answer any questions.

Try to check the adesk cad manager's group, but, it locks up on me, too much for my attention span (or lack thereof).

9:15 Pull up Citrix to log into Archibus thick client.

Yesterday I was asked which conference rooms in our corporate buildings are restricted (used exclusively by one department, or presently out of rotation because of being utilized as a workspace).

That information is not currently being tracked in our CAFM system.

So, today I added a room type for restricted conference rooms and will be adjusting the records as I can, it'll piggyback on a recent audit I did, whose results I'll go over with my coworker when she returns and digs out.

As long as I'm in the room types table, I see there are description formatting inconsistencies with 10% of the room type descriptions, and 30% of the room types have no floor plan highlight colors assigned, so I rectify those gaps.

9:45 I've been sitting for 2 1/2 hours already today and just received a FitBit taunt from Frozen Layers.

So, I'm going to run the stairs and get some coffee.

Alright, 10 minutes = 600 moderate steps. I needed that break, too.

9:55 Check the employee starts/moves that need processing, chase up managers when no locations are given.

11:00 Heard back about the questions I had regarding restricted rooms in our main buildings and pulled up some floor plans to categorize them all.

12:00 sent off summary spreadsheet to my VP along with a couple of changes I'll be making in our database to account for this. I miss our Corporate Facilities superhero, she could tell us without running a report.

12:15 walking downstairs to see if there's anything decent looking in the cafe.

12:30 The roasted veggies looked nice so I grabbed a variety. I eat while popping into the AUGI forums again. Hint: I always keep chopsticks at my desk, makes one-handed eating simpler. Not very filling, so I'll have a protein bar later (if you visited me & Uncle Bill at Autodesk University, these are what I bring with me in the case of weird foods or a too-busy schedule when I travel, I keep a box in my cube for busy days).

12:45 I'm finished with lunch and email, procrastinating on working on the occupancy plans again... but, as my alternative is to work on the Processes and Procedures manual for my team, which my manager just put me in charge of (since I can't keep my big mouth shut)... I dig into the employee movement records again.

12:55 Call about emergency project in another building. Plan done and sent off to create project.

1:10 Back to occupancy plans.

1:30 Call from my Archibus business partner (Talisen Technologies). We try to meet once a week to go over outstanding issues and troubleshoot my code, because I'm such a noob. Just a quick touch-base today, we'll reconnect next week and put out fires by email.

1:40 Tech support visit from the Real Estate Manager, a cache-clearing resolves it.

I copy out the log file to peruse later to investigate a timeout issue she's having.

1:50 Mental health break. Coffee. Hide in the bathroom.

2:00 Back at desk, I open up AutoCAD to a drawing I was playing with (a polyhedral desk calendar... lady-geekified).

2:40 Back to occupancy. Verifying which people have left this week, or consultants whose contracts have ended or been extended.

3:50 Run update routine to populate Department into the rooms, from the new occupants, or freed up due to departures.

3:55 One last run through the mailboxes. I would normally stay a bit later to plow through more of this, but, I have a meeting in Clayton at 4:30.

4:30 Settling in at the Christner office training room, with some of the most awesome local talent for a RUG steering committee meeting.

Chris Link and Ellen Smith led the rest of us in talks about meeting frequency, networking event locations, topics, resource collaboration (such as skills requirements and PxPs), division of labor with more frequent meetings and sponsors. The St. Louis Revit Users Group also wants to beef up its social media presence, sharing our content and keeping in the forefront of members' minds so they don't miss any events they're interested in.

5:30 Meeting breaks up, discussion on cloud collaboration setups and options breaks out. Interesting stuff. Everyone is working on interesting projects. Oh, drumming up support and authority from leadership was another sidebar.

6:00 Leave and head toward home.

As I leave, I think how disappointed I am that no one at all noticed my One Ring earrings today.

6:25 Stop at grocery store.

6:45 Home at last. Unpack groceries, sort mail.

7:00 Dinner in the oven (toasting breadbowls for leftover chili).

7:08 Family eating.

7:10 Some alone time on my elliptical.

7:40 I'm a wuss and my foot hurts. Shower time.

8:00 Getting my kindergartener ready for bed.

I'm very proud, he made his first pun today (it involved farts, so my husband is also very proud).

"I want to be somebody new" is our bedtime story. His reading is progressing quickly.

8:20 Eating my dinner. Taking some hits on my guild monster, I was a terrible slacker missing battle this evening, gotta make it up to my guildies before my DH finishes shaving and starts up our movie (we're watching Serenity tonight. It took some work, but, I've made him into a huge Firefly fan... he's even got Jayne's Blue Sun shirt and everything.).

8:40 Livingroom time.

If I'm doing any blogging or specific AUGI projects (like surveys/polls), this is when I'll tackle it.

Pages

About Me

A little more about me...

I work as a Solution Architect for an IWMS consulting firm.

Prior to this role, I spent a couple years as an Archibus System Administrator (CAFM/CMMS) for a financial services institution, helping my users be the best stewards of post-construction assets as they can be. Although, I spent the first 13+ years of my FM career in Engineering (MEP/FP) for a medical facility.

I began this blog because I love AutoCAD and Revit MEP and wanted to share that with local users.

I am also a Freelance Writer and Technical Editor (articles, web, podcasts and textbooks).

*AUGI* I joined the Autodesk Users Group International at AU2001. Spent six years serving as an Officer on the Board of Directors (2010/11-2017/01) and run the Annual Salary Survey as well as the @AUGIatAU social media account.